A melodic melding of art and music to greet audience in Greenwich

Christina Hennessy

Published 5:55 pm, Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Photo: Contributed Photo

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Artist Carla Hall's "Butternut Valley Landscape," an oil on canvas, is on display at the Greenwich Arts Council. The works have inspired a concert set for Nov. 16, 2013, at the art space, which is located at 299 Greenwich Ave., Greenwich. less

Artist Carla Hall's "Butternut Valley Landscape," an oil on canvas, is on display at the Greenwich Arts Council. The works have inspired a concert set for Nov. 16, 2013, at the art space, which is located at ... more

Photo: Contributed Photo

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Artist Carla Hall's stoneware sculpture, "Aconite," is on display at the Greenwich Arts Council. The works have inspired a concert set for Nov. 16, 2013, at the art space, which is located at 299 Greenwich Ave., Greenwich, Conn. less

Artist Carla Hall's stoneware sculpture, "Aconite," is on display at the Greenwich Arts Council. The works have inspired a concert set for Nov. 16, 2013, at the art space, which is located at 299 Greenwich ... more

Photo: Contributed Photo

A melodic melding of art and music to greet audience in Greenwich

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It doesn't take more than a five-minute walk or a five-minute drive to get to most of the places that inspire artist Carla Hall. They are her neighbors' barns and farmland, mountains that rise in the distance and the rolling hills that create a natural quilt of colorful, textured squares.

These are the scenes assembled throughout the expanse of the Bendheim Gallery at the Greenwich Arts Council -- captured in paint or glaze on large canvases and ceramic tiles. In and around them are the sculptures, often abstract, that are further expressions of the connection Hall has to the land that she and her ancestors have called home for hundreds of years. It is a place called Butternut Valley, which is located in upstate New York in Otsego County.

"This is an homage to my ancestors," she said on a recent day, as she ran her hands along the side of the large "totem pole" that sits outside the arts council building. Aptly name "Ancestors," the sculpture holds seven generations of the Morris family in the form of representational objects -- starting with General Jacob Morris (1755--1844) and ending at the top form, which reflects the family from which Hall came to the one that she has built with husband Ben Friedman.

Inside, one finds additional sculptures that Hall has used to not only express her connection with the land, but to express her interior landscape, "the memories, dreams and reflections," that have marked her life. For instance, "Behold, I am here," is another large totem structure that greets people at the start of her show, "Landscapes and Lifescapes," which is on view through Nov. 30 and curated by the council's Tatiana Mori. "I see this as a spiritual investigation of who I am."

As to who Hall is, she is many things, including painter, sculptor and environmentalist. She divides her time between New York City and Butternut Valley, and remains active in the visual branding agency, Carla Hall Design Group, that she began in 1980. However, she has recently worked to devote more time to her art, which she creates in her upstate New York studio. She's also no stranger to Greenwich, where her parents moved when Hall was in high school. As a young mom, Hall said she would spend her summers at her parents' house, getting to know people and make lasting friendships.

Some of those people are likely to be among the many expected to gather for an evening of art and music on Saturday, Nov. 16, when the council hosts "Musical Pairing," a concert inspired by the art works. It will be arranged by professional musician and Greenwich artist Joseph Dermody, who hosted a similar program in the spring in conjunction with an exhibition of his art.

Saturday's concert is part of a new series launched by the council to integrate music and art into a meaningful evening, the one informing the other. Paul Master-Karnik, the council's executive director, said it is a concept that has been discussed for a while, and the success of the last concert proved there was an audience.

"We had standing room only," said Dermody.

A furniture designer, visual artist, sculptor and musician, Dermody had made music an integral part of his exhibition, "reclAimed peRspecTive: Paintings, Furniture and Musical Pairings," when he created musical passages for many of the paintings. They were delivered to visitors' smartphones once they swiped their devices over bar codes affixed to the works' labels.

For this concert, Dermody said he pored over more than 100 works by Hall, which quickly gave him a sense of musical direction. He turned to selections by George Gershwin, Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland, Scott Joplin and others to build the program, which will feature Dermody on violin and viola, a small ensemble of classical musicians and opera soprano Molly Davey.

"(Carla's) paintings have this Americana feel to them," Dermody said. "They just screamed early 20th century composers."